


Ghosting

by MintChocolateLeaves



Series: Mint's Long-Fics [8]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Angst, M/M, Necromancer AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 17:45:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15176000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MintChocolateLeaves/pseuds/MintChocolateLeaves
Summary: The best way of solving a murder, is by asking the victim who killed them. Impossible for the majority, but not impossible for Kudo Shinichi, a necromancer. The only problem, is sometimes, people like Kuroba Kaito refuse to tell, leaving the case open, and a corpse brought back to life for a lot longer than recommended. Necromancer!AU. KaiShin.





	Ghosting

**Author's Note:**

> The KaiShin discord is responsible for this. Also, I didn't put the 'major-character death' tag into this, because the summary makes it pretty obvious that Kaito is alive but also dead. So... yeah. Please enjoy?

__

“Come on, hurry up and bring him back.”

From where he is standing over the dead body they’ve found while grocery shopping Kudo Shinichi looks up. Opposite him, is his not-quite-dead companion Kaito, pale faced and looking panicked. Not that he should be worried – no one else comes down this alleyway at 3 a.m in the morning.

In fact, even Shinichi is wondering himself why they’re here, walking back from the supermarket at 3 a.m.

“Shut up and let me work,” Shinichi says, looking back down at the corpse they’ve stumbled across. From the track marks across his inner arm, he’s an addict, but even still… Shinichi knows he doesn’t deserve it.

“I would but you’re being slow,” Kaito mutters. He leans back, guards the bread with his right arm and the rest of their shopping with his left. There’s not much he can do resurrecting a body, so instead he uses his skills to guard fruits and the bag of rice they’ve picked up.

“I’m trying to heal his semilunar cusps Kaito,” Shinichi hisses, “if I don’t do that, then the moment I bring him back, his blood won’t flow just one way and he’ll die again. So, shut up and let me mend his heart.”

Kaito tuts under his breath, but otherwise, falls silent.

Shinichi heals the man’s heart, and looks at the other wounds. A stab wound – he’d been murdered, not long ago by the residual warmth of his body.

“I’m bringing him back now,” Shinichi mutters, offering the barest smile to his friend.

“Okay,” Kaito responds, placing the groceries to the side and taking a step nearer. Reanimating a corpse rarely leads to violence – most don’t have enough energy upon opening their eyes – but sometimes… well, since he’s brought Kaito back to life, the magician has taken it upon himself to keep him from harm.

The man opens his eyes. And their case begins.

* * *

The people they bring back never stay alive for long.

It’s part of Shinichi’s code – from the moment he’d discovered he could bring people back to life, he’d realised it was unfair to let them live half alive for too long. So he always makes sure that after he has solved the case, he unravels the magic that reanimates them, leaving them in the state he’d found them in.

It does not bring a feeling of accomplishment, but Shinichi supposes that being unable to bring people back to life permanently will always bring leave him unsatisfied.

But he can’t go against the natural order of things, he knows it’s even more cruel. Bringing someone back to life means runs the risk of them coming back with the knowledge of how they died. The memories of having been murdered, of having _died._

And if that’s even worse, they’re not truly alive. They won’t grow older, won’t change in the same way living things do.

Kaito is a temporary blip to the rule. Mainly because it’s been over a year now, and they still haven’t solved the mystery behind his murder. Since then, they’ve simply been living together, solving murders and learning the truth.

Shinichi tries not to think too much about it. He’s got other things to worry about anyway, things that aren’t big life changing events, but still weigh into his everyday life.

Like trying to get his next criminology essay written by its due date. Or making sure that when Kaito goes to get some groceries, that he comes back with things that are actually nutritional, because one half of their duo needs nutrients to stay alive and not simply _magic._

“Oh my god,” Kaito moans, as Shinichi continues to type on his keyboard, glancing at a case study he’s got to submit within the next few days, “I hate being cooped up in this stupid apartment.”

It’s actually a half-decent apartment, not that Shinichi’s going to correct him. Correcting Kaito on anything is only a leeway into some sort of debate and if he wants to keep the focus on his report, then his best bet is going to be to simply ignore the other man.

“Don’t–” Kaito says after a moment, eyes narrowing into a glare, “don’t ignore me.”

“What do you want me to say Kaito?” Shinichi says, “if you’re bored of being indoors, then go outdoors. But please, _let me do my work._ ”

The scathing look he receives in response is nothing outside of the norm. There’s not a huge amount of leeway Kaito has in activities, seeing as he’s technically missing – since his death a year ago, he’s been forced to leave Ekoda behind, living with Shinichi instead – and can’t show his face around very often.

It’s why they typically leave the house at night. Or whenever Shinichi needs to head somewhere, the task unable to wait until the sun sets.

“Yeah,” Kaito says after a moment, “even if I do go out, I’m still stuck in the same stupid radius.”

Shinichi blinks. Turns around to face the magician and bites into his lip. He says, “what radius.”

Kaito offers him a smile, shakes his head and says, “seeing as I’m missing and all, I’ve got limits on where I can go right. It’s my radius.”

He’s lying. Shinichi knows he is, and it leaves a small burst of irritation welling in his stomach because Kaito rarely lies, not anymore, not since they’d both agreed to tell the truth always. Shinichi had told him about his ability to bring the dead back to life, and Kaito had told him about Kaitou KID – together they’d decided to tell the truth.

“Whatever,” Shinichi sighs. “Just let me do my work and quit complaining.”

 “We’re doing something fun tonight instead,” Kaito sighs, “for all the ignoring and wanting to be so pedestrian with things like _essays.”_

“If you want,” another sigh, “but lets not make it too dangerous this time. I know I can heal you anytime, but I can’t heal myself, or bring myself back from the dead so _please.”_

There’s no point trying to get the secrets out of Kaito.

After all, no one keeps secrets quite like the dead.

* * *

There are quite a few things that Kaito won't tell Shinichi, things that make the detective more curious than anything. Most of them relate to his own death, the circumstances he'd been forced into that had led to Shinichi having to resurrect him. It drives him insane, but usually, Shinichi leaves it be.

Except, he can't now. Not when they're facing a dead body in the same state as Kaito's had been.

“Well this isn’t very fair,” Kaito mutters, “we were supposed to be going out to do something fun.”

"Severe homeostatic imbalance," Shinichi says, ignoring the man. Looking the corpse up and down, he assesses her condition, before settling his gaze onto Kaito. He receives a worried glance, and tightened lips. "A mixture of trauma and natural causes elevated far beyond the usual level."

Kaito tightens his grip on his card gun - modified to keep any malevolent spirits from attacking either of them - and shrugs his shoulders. As if he doesn't see the links.

"...What happened when you died Kaito?" Shinichi mutters now, "the day you died. Because this girl... she's in the same condition you were."

Silence – continued, a lack of any response on his partners end. Kaito will protect him from anyone attempting to harm Shinichi, but he won’t tell him this truth. Perhaps he thinks he needs to protect him from that too. Shinichi doesn’t know.

He can only assume.

“I don’t remember,” Kaito says, crossing his arms. “You know as well as I do, that some people can’t remember the circumstances around their own deaths.”

Shinichi crosses his arms.

It’s true, but he knows that Kaito isn’t one of those few who forget. This is one lie he’s tired of hearing. One case he just wants to lay to rest.

He sighs.

They’ve got bigger problems right now. Like how Shinichi’s going to have to use more magic to heal the girl’s injuries, piecing her back together so that when he brings her back to talk to her, she won’t die _again_.

Shinichi will have to find a way to coax the entire situation out from Kaito later.

For now, he needs to focus on repairing the bones, from where they’ve cracked. Resealing burst blood vessels all over the body.

The more he heals, the more exhausted he becomes.

Even as he’s piecing together artery walls, Shinichi can hear Kaito moving in the backwards. Disappearing momentarily to find him something sugary, something that will bring his energy back up.

“How much more?” Kaito asks, when he sits back down next to him. Shinichi knows that he’s not being conducting magic for any longer than ten minutes – eight is his usual limit before he runs dry of such a substance – but it feels like he’s been working for hours.

He’s parched. So parched that he hardly registers Kaito’s expression as he hands over an energy drink, caffeine capable of upping his magic drives, just so he can hold out a little longer.

Shinichi knows he’ll be exhausted later, but for now… well, they have a body that he needs to reanimate.

“Not much more,” Shinichi mutters, after a second. His hands, he realises as he puts the can down, are drenched in blood. _Her blood._ Kaito seems to notice his hesitation, passes him a wipe to get most of it off.

His fingerprints will erase themselves, he knows, once his magic fades away, but it doesn’t leave Shinichi any less nervous.

“I just need to piece her spinal cord back together, it’s… almost like it’s mangled?”

Shinichi doesn’t understand how. This is the second time he’s seen such a thing and without any trauma to the spine it doesn’t make any sense how such a thing could get into such a state and yet…

The final task… Shinichi knows that it’ll be the most difficult part of the whole procedure. If he weaves his magic incorrectly, pieces the spinal cord together incorrectly then there’s no point bringing her back.

She could be completely paralysed, unable to give any indication as to what has happened to her.

“Don’t distract me,” Shinichi says, when he passes back the empty can, “I can’t go wrong on this.”

Kaito stays quiet.

And Shinichi works. He works from the top of her spine, working his way down. Smoothing out the edges that have crumpled in on themselves, and piecing together the taut, stretched edges that have started to split.

By the time he reaches the bottom of the lumbar region, piecing together the last nerve, he feels exhaustion flooding through him. It’s taken longer than he’d thought it would, longer than it had when Kaito had died.

Shinichi should have realised it would – keeping Kaito alive is a task in of itself, and even now it’s limiting his magic reserves. Not too much that it’s noticeable, but pushing himself like this…

“I’m done.” Shinichi says, glancing up. “We can wake her up now.”

Kaito nods, and then, almost as quickly he pauses. He says, “are you sure you’ve got enough energy for that. I don’t want you to push yourself.”

“I’ll be fine,” Shinichi says, leaning back over her. “I’ve got enough energy to bring her back, and to keep her stable until we figure out the details. I’ll just need to sleep in tomorrow for once, that’s all.”

He leans forward, places both hands over the girl’s heart, and takes a moment to think of the spell. They’re always different, no _exact_ incantation, but rather, one designed specifically for the person they’re bringing back.

Shinichi needs to think. It’d be easier if he had a name, or some outline for her personality, but he can make do without. He can deduce enough about her from her appearance to figure out the best incantation to use.

Spiritual – she’s wearing a charm around her neck. Intended for good luck and protection. Shinichi can draw on that to bring her back, an unused magic personalised to her, that he can use to form the spell.

What else?

Damn, it’s too dark and there’s too much blood for him to see things as they usually would be. He’ll need to rely on the charm and hope it does enough – if it doesn’t work, then Shinichi will just have to try something else.

Shinichi takes a deep breath, scoops some of his remaining magic up and breathes it into her cells. When it isn’t enough to get her heart to start beating again, he puts a hand on her charm, channels the magic inside the protection into her instead.

He can feel the second her heart resumes beating, takes his hand from her carotid artery and pushes back. Waiting for her to wake up on her own.

A few seconds pass by.

And then the girl opens her eyes, wide and pained, the white's stained red - bloodshot. She lets out a gasp, as she looks at Shinichi, lips in an 'o' as she heaves her shoulders upwards. Across from them, Kaito leans nearer, paler than ever, looking almost the same colour as when he'd been dead.

She let's out another gasp - choked - and lifts both hands up to her neck, digging her nails into skin. Her lips are blue, and Kaito leans forward, horrified.

"Shinichi," Kaito mutters, "something's wrong.”

A cough - red. There's so much blood that for a moment Shinichi feels himself freeze. Then, he leans forward, eyes closed and uses his magic to scan her systems for the issue. She's bleeding out, the blood pooling and surging backwards rather than forwards, up her pulmonary artery and -

"There," Shinichi says, grasping out with his magic. "The tunica media was ripped. The pressure wave of the heart beat... the artery couldn't handle it..."

"Shinichi," Kaito mutters, watching the dim glow of Shinichi's magic as he fixes the issue, muttering a healing spell beneath his breath, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

The necromancer shakes his head, ignoring the comment and focuses instead of mending the tissue walls back to normal. He feels it, imaginary threads in his mind that slowly place the girl’s heart back to usual, bringing her back even as she chokes on her own blood.

“You’re okay,” Shinichi says, crossing his arms. “Just try to breathe. You’re alright.”

The girl blinks, green eyes swimming with confusion. As soon as he releases the spell, letting the magic work it’s way through her body, she goes still, eyes widening.

“She’s going to freak out,” Kaito mutters, leaning forward to look her in the eyes. “Maybe you should leave this bit to me. I know from experience after all.”

Normally Shinichi trusts him. Trusts him to use the natural charm of his to calm people down and to coax the details of their deaths from them in a way that’ll be both comfortable for the victim, and informative for them.

But her case is probably like Kaito’s… and with the way Kaito refuses to tell him anything about his own murder… well Shinichi can’t trust the magician to give him all the details she’ll go on to tell him.

“I’ll leave it to you,” Shinichi says, “but I don’t want to leave her. I want to be near in case I need to use more magic.”

Kaito nods, understanding. Except, his eyes are cloudy, as if he’s struggling to keep from ordering Shinichi away, from ordering him to take a step back on this case. Not that Kaito would ever openly deter him – no, he usually spends all his time claiming he doesn’t remember.

Like hell he doesn’t. Shinichi remembers when Kaito had been alive, he’d had a spark in his eyes, of hope and a sort of skewed innocence, despite his background in theft.

He’d woken with that spark gone.

It’s how Shinichi knows something bad happened. Something Kaito’s trying to protect him from, even one year on.

“Alright,” Kaito says, turning to the girl and seeming to block him out. He offers her a smile, “I’m Kaito, and you are?”

She does not respond, settles instead on pushing herself up, looking around the street. It’s empty, late at night and some part of her can sense the lingering danger. Shinichi wonders if she’s realised yet she’s died, or whether it will come racing back to her later.

“Dead.” She says, glancing down at her hands. They’re bloody, stained red, as with most of her body. “I’m dead.”

“Well…” Kaito blinks, “yes, that’s true. But I was expecting more along the lines of your name?”

The girl leans forward, puts her hands around Kaito’s shoulders and crumples. She says, “no ya don’t understand, I’m… I’m _dead._ I was… How am I both dead an’ alive right now?”

Tilting his head, Kaito lifts his hand up, points towards Shinichi. He turns, offers a small smile before turning to glance at the detective. He says, “Shinichi brought you back, that’s how.”

She turns towards Shinichi now, eyes squinting to see him through the darkness. He hesitates, uncertain of what to say. What exactly _is_ there to be said at a time like this.

“Kudo Shinichi,” she says, “I recognise ya from the news…” A pause, as her expression sours. “So ya solve murders by cheating?”

Shinichi isn’t exactly certain what she means by cheating, but he’s not going to question it. Maybe it’s because he can talk to the dead, solve their murders using the details that _they’re_ able to give. The full picture, it would seem.

“You know who we are,” Shinichi says, crossing his arms, “so why don’t you tell us who you are.”

“Is that how this is going to work?” The girl whispers, straightening up. She lifts her hands up to pull her hair back into ribbons, ignoring the blood that matts the ponytail together. “You’re going to question me for information, and the minute I’ve told you everything I can about my case, you’ll let me die again?”

Kaito pats her shoulder. It’s meant to be reassuring but Shinichi can see it’s anything but that. Instead, her expression morphs into a glare.

She sighs. “My name, is Kazuha. And that’s all I have to say to you people.”

**Author's Note:**

> The author enjoys comments.


End file.
